The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills Part 18

"No, Ja.n.u.s is not," answered the guide. "There isn't enough of that frying-pan left to make grit for chickens. Two hundred feet and then the rocks. Well, I swum! You'll go without eating to-morrow, so far as the frying-pan is concerned."

"We ought to do something to Tommy for that," declared Harriet. "What shall it be, girls?"

"Oh, let her alone. Tommy will punish herself if you give her time,"

averred Margery.

Tommy nodded. "Yeth, leave it to me," she urged. "I can take care of mythelf. Buthter ith right, for once in her life. Leave it to me."

They agreed to do so. Harriet turned to Miss Elting.

"You promised to tell us the legend that belongs to this shelf of rock on which we are encamped. If not too long a story, will you relate it now?"

The girls crept to the fire, about which they sat in a circle with their feet tucked under them in true council-fire style.

"You probably have read," began Miss Elting, "that the Sokokis, a powerful Indian tribe, once held possession of these hills. Chocorua, for whom this mountain is named, was chief of a mighty tribe. The chief, in revenge for the loss of his son, who had been slain by the whites in battle, killed a white settler's wife and child. This white man swore to have the life of the powerful Chocorua. Shouldering his gun, he followed the mountain trails for many days and nights. The chief knew that an avenger was on his trail; his braves knew it. They made every effort to catch the avenging white man, but he was too clever for them. Yet not an Indian was molested. The white man wanted only Chocorua, and Chocorua knew it. The chief fled from place to place, ever pursued by the persistent avenger. Then, at last, the white man found the trail when it was hot. He followed the trail, and one day, when the morning was young, came face to face with the savage chief."

"Do you know where they met, young ladies?" interrupted Ja.n.u.s, who was familiar with the legend.

The girls shook their heads.

"Right here where we are sitting now."

"Grathiouth!" muttered Tommy, glancing about her apprehensively.

"They aren't here now, my dear Tommy," observed Miss Elting smilingly.

"The white man pointed his gun at the Indian," she continued, "but the old chieftain never flinched. He sent back a look so full of hatred that the white man almost feared him. The chief, with upraised hands, called down the curses of the Great Spirit on the head of the white man and all his kind. Then Chocorua turned and sped swiftly to the far end of the shelf, near where we got the water for our supper, and, without an instant's hesitation, leaped far out into s.p.a.ce."

"Oh!" exclaimed the girls shudderingly.

"The body of the chief dashed from rock to rock, finally dropping into the lake which you saw as we came up. Then a strange thing occurred.

The white settlers finally conquered the Indians; then they brought in their stock and began to graze them. But after that every animal that drank from the lake died. It came to be known as the 'Lake of the Poisoned Waters.' The Indians declared this to be the revenge of the Great Spirit."

"How strange!" pondered Harriet.

"A number of scientific men, pa.s.sing through this section years afterward, unraveled the mystery. They say that the lime formation of the rocks, through which the water seeps into the lake, has poisoned the water. But you cannot make an Indian believe that."

"Ith thith a fairy thtory, or a really-truly thtory?" demanded Tommy.

"It is only a legend, Tommy," was Miss Elting's smiling reply.

"It has been a most interesting story," nodded Harriet. "I love Indian folklore."

"Girls, it is time for you to turn in," reminded Miss Elting.

"I don't like such stories before going to bed," objected Margery. "I know I shall have the nightmare. Oh!"

"We will roll you over if you do," answered Jane. "There's n.o.body but ourselves to hear you, either, so you may yell all you please, and----"

"No!" protested Tommy. "If Buthter yellth I'll yell, too, and wake up all the retht of you."

"Then you'll be attended to then and there," Jane warned her.

"You let me alone. I will let you know when I get ready for your thervithes. You needn't go on talking about me, either. You make me nervouth, ath Buthter sayth."

Ja.n.u.s began his preparations for the night. These consisted princ.i.p.ally in taking each girl's rope and securing it to his own belt, which he had taken off for the purpose of making the ropes fast to it.

They watched him with keen interest.

"Just a precaution," he explained. "If any one of you moves in the night I shall know it."

"My grathiouth!" shuddered Tommy, "ithn't it exthiting?" She made a ridiculous face at the guide's broad back.

The girls tried hard not to laugh, but Margery giggled audibly, bringing a frown from the guardian. Tommy, however, declared that she would not roll up in her blanket, that she would fold it over her, so she could get up without disturbing the camp.

"Roll up when you are ready," directed the guide.

Each girl, except Tommy, lay down on her blanket, and, tucking in one edge, proceeded to roll herself up in it Indian-fashion, leaving only her head and face exposed to the air. Tommy sat up, observing them solemnly.

"You look like a lot of mummieth," she declared.

"And we feel like them, darlin'," answered Jane.

The guide now proceeded to wrap the free end of rope about each girl's waist over the blanket, except in Tommy's case. She preferred to have the rope about her waist before rolling up in her blanket, determining in her own mind to slip the loop off after the others had gone to sleep. Fortunately, however, Tommy Thompson's eyes grew heavy and she dropped to sleep ahead of her companions. The guide lay down with his blanket half folded over him without a single worry on his mind, knowing that his charges could not get far away without a pulling on the lines that would awaken him.

But when the pulling on the lines did come, Ja.n.u.s Grubb was not prepared for it, and the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls was thrown into wild excitement by what followed.

CHAPTER XII

TOMMY FALLS OUT OF BED

The night was far spent, and the air at their alt.i.tude was crisp and chill. Below them a fog had settled over the canyons and gullies, blotting the landscape entirely from the sight of any one above the mist line. But, though there was no moon, objects could be made out with reasonable distinctness on Sokoki Leap, where the girls, their guardian and the guide were sleeping more or less soundly. Toward morning, however, Tommy awoke with a start. She twitched and jerked, rolled herself into a ball, straightened out again and twisted and turned, wide awake and nervous. Her rope being long, the guide was not disturbed--at least, not then.

An owl hooted high in a ledge above their camping place. It hooted three times. Tommy rose, throwing off her blanket. She stood shivering in her kimono, for the air had grown chilly, undecided whether to awaken the camp or lie down again. Finally she sank down and rolled over and over in her blanket, this time determined to wrap up so snugly that the cold could not reach her.

Then came the interruption, starting with a scream so terrifying as to awaken every member of the party and to frighten the owl into sudden silence. Shouts were heard from all sides. The girls began struggling to free themselves from their blankets. To do this some of them rolled toward the guide, others from him, according to the way they had rolled themselves in their blankets before going to sleep. Harriet was the first to free herself from the folds of the gray blanket that enveloped her. She leaped to her feet, crying out, "What is the matter now?"

A strange sight met her gaze. Ja.n.u.s was sliding over the shelf, half rolling, half slipping, in a mysterious fashion. At the same time the others of the party were performing strangely, getting up, falling down, as, entangled in their blankets, they staggered dangerously near the edge of the rocky shelf, apparently unmindful of their peril.

"Catch me! Jump on the rope!" yelled the guide.

Harriet's quick eyes, now wide open, caught the significance of the scene. Without an instant's hesitation she sprang toward Ja.n.u.s, fairly hurling herself upon him. One hand grabbed a taut rope that was straining with some heavy weight pulling on it at the other end.

Ja.n.u.s sat up as the girl threw her own weight on the line to a.s.sist in holding it until the guide should have recovered himself.

"Oh, what has happened?" cried the guardian.